Dub Hub: Draymond Green praises Chris Paul as one of his ‘top 5’ teammates ever

Rounding up all Warriors and NBA related news for Tuesday, January 30th.

Warriors News:

Draymond Green explains why Chris Paul is already in his top 5 teammates ever | Draymond Green Show

Draymond has ‘no hard feelings’ over Team USA Olympics omission | NBC Sports Bay Area

“To even be in the space of where it has to be mentioned that, ‘Hey he’s not on that list,’ … that says a lot to me about me,” Green said. “I don’t take that for granted at all. USAB has been great to me. To have the opportunities that I’ve had to compete in the Olympics and win gold medals, I wouldn’t trade those for nothing.

“Would it have been nice to play in a third Olympics? Absolutely. But I’m also not going to sit here and act like if all those same guys that’s on the list was on the list in 2016 that I would ever have the first opportunity. When it works in your favor, you take what comes with it, which is the good. Then when it don’t quite work in your favor you have to take the bad that comes with it as well. It is what it is.”

The Athletic’s Shams Charania shares his thoughts on the Warriors’ trade market

2024 NBA trade deadline: Latest buzz, news and reports | ESPN

Speaking on NBA Today, ESPN senior writer Ramona Shelburne said the Golden State Warriors won’t break up their veteran championship core unless Stephen Curry has a say in it.

“They’re not going to make any moves to that core and break up that dynastic team unless he’s on board with that idea,” Shelburne said.

Sixers’ Joel Embiid (knee) misses 2nd straight game | ESPN

Embiid was not listed on any of the pregame injury reports leading into Saturday’s game. According to sources close to the situation, Embiid was determined to play in Denver for the first time since 2019 but was pulled from the game by the team’s medical staff after the staff watched him warm up before the game. As one source put it, he “could barely jump” as he warmed up.

Before Monday’s game, 76ers coach Nick Nurse told reporters that Embiid’s status for Tuesday night’s game at the Golden State Warriors was uncertain.

“I don’t want to rule him out at all,” Nurse said. “So I guess we’ll just see how we’re doing.”

NBA News:

Anthony Edwards hammers officiating in Timberwolves win over Thunder | ESPN

He declared during his on-court postgame interview on the Timberwolves’ TV broadcast: “I’m going to take the fine, because the refs did not give us no calls tonight,” and continued harping on the issue in the locker room.

“The refs was bad tonight. Yeah, they was terrible,” Edwards told ESPN without prompting. “We was playing 8-on-5.”

Edwards led the Timberwolves with 27 points, shooting 10-of-20 from the floor and 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Edwards thought he earned several more trips to the line.

“The cat got their tongue tonight, so it’s all good,” Edwards said of the referees. “It’s not fair, but it’s all good.”

Hollinger: Has NBA offense gotten out of control? Plus, nerding out on All-Star votes | The Athletic

That’s the math, but let’s take this back to the central discussion point: Are offenses getting far enough ahead that the league needs to do something about it? The natural ebb and flow of the game is best when teams score roughly half the time, and we’re still not too far off from that, believe it or not: The average of 115.9 points per 100 possessions becomes 102.9 when you subtract 3-pointers, which implies the offense scoring on 51.5 percent of possessions. (It’s not quite that simple, of course, with and-1s and split free throws and flagrant and technical fouls to consider, but humor me.) That same number 10 years ago was 49.1 percent; the overall efficiency numbers were a lot worse because there were just a lot more 2s.

Still, we’re seemingly at a worrisome tipping point, because the current trend line shows no sign of a flattening curve. The game right now is still in great shape, but offenses seem hell-bent on changing that, and defenses might have a hard time catching up without some help from the league. If offenses keep adding a point in efficiency every season, games like “Indiana 157, Atlanta 152” will become a nightly mockery of the game instead of a once-a-season spectacle.

Lakers announcer Billy Mac shares an interesting stat about Los Angeles’ free throw disparity

In case you missed it at Golden State of Mind:

No, the Warriors aren’t going to trade Klay Thompson

Rumors beget interest and interest begets sensationalism. And so we’ve come to live in a Warriors world in which the headlines aren’t perfectly aligned with the reality. National reporter Shams Charania set those headlines ablaze a few weeks ago when he said, “The mindset in Golden State right now is everyone but Steph Curry is on the table.” Nevermind that the next words out of Charania’s mouth were, “That’s their mindset. Now realistically, there’s an asterisk,” before detailing how the team intends to keep building around Green, Kuminga, Klay Thompson, Brandin Podziemski, and Trayce Jackson-Davis.

But those important details don’t make for good headlines, so they were conveniently ignored.

Warriors need Klay to be Klay against the Lakers

One thing that’s becoming clear in this matchup between division rivals and legacy franchises is that L.A. has done an excellent job of keeping Klay Thompson from finding consistency on the offensive end. That’s no small feat considering Thompson is one of the greatest scorers in NBA history and has more records than Motown.

Since his 30 point explosion in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals when he hit 11-of-18 from the field (61%), he has not been able to keep a rhythm against the Lakers, the team his father Mychal played for.

Game 3: 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting (35% FG%), 3-of-9 from 3PT range.

Game 4: 8 points on 3-of-11 shooting (27% FG%), 3-of-9 from 3PT range.

Game 5: 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting (25% FG%), 2-of-6 from 3PT range.

Game 6: 8 points on 3-of-19 shooting (16% FG%), 2-of-12 from 3PT range.

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